Carry Me Home
by librarynerd
Summary: Arizona calls Callie late at night while she's driving back from a trip and asks Callie to talk to her while she's driving to keep her awake for the final stretch.


Title: Carry Me Home

Author: librarynerd

Pairing: Callie/Arizona

Rating: G/K

Summary: Arizona calls Callie late at night while she's driving back from a trip and asks Callie to talk to her while she's driving to keep her awake for the final stretch.

Disclaimer: I am very glad to say that I don't own Grey's Anatomy or these characters. This is purely for enjoyment and I am not making any money from it.

A/N: This was written, edited, and posted in about an hour and a half, which is a record for me. Many, many thanks to T for taking a break from her night (Sorry, Leslie!) to read through this for me.

Callie Torres was almost asleep, having given up on her wife making it home in time to go to bed together, when her phone rang and thrust her back into consciousness. She rubbed her eyes and reached over sleepily to pluck her phone off the nightstand. "Hello?" she asked as she answered the phone without checking the caller ID.

"Hey, it's me. Did I wake you?" sounded the voice on the other end of the line, which sounded just as sleepy as Callie's.

"Arizona. Hey. Are you almost home?" Arizona had been away at a conference in Portland for the last three days. She missed her family too much to stay another night away from home, so instead, she left Portland at 10:00 P.M. to drive the 3 hours home.

"Yeah. I have about twenty minutes left and I am totally fried. Can you talk to me until I get there, to keep me awake? I had a really long day today."

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?" Callie pushed herself up and sat up against the headboard. As she did, her eye caught the picture of Arizona and Sofia that sat on her nightstand. It instantly made her smile.

"I don't care. What did you do today?" Arizona was more glad than ever that Callie had insisted on adding a hands-free calling system to her car. This way, she could talk to Callie without worrying about being too distracted to drive.

"Morning glory Sofia decided that she was ready to get up at 5:30 today, so I've been up since then. I think she expected to see you and was a little disappointed that I came and got her instead. She kept looking around like she was expecting you to come in any minute. I wish she could understand when I told her that Mama will be home when she wakes up tomorrow."

"I miss her so much. I did not expect it to be this hard to be away from her. I feel like I've missed so much and it's only been three days."

"Hey. You're a mom. It's normal." Callie could almost hear the face that Arizona made at that statement. She knew Arizona was terrified that being a mom would make it impossible for her to do her job. "Arizona, you are an amazing mom and an amazing doctor."

"I know. I know." It was an oft-repeated phrase in their home, a reassurance after the worst days. "What else did you do today?"

"I dropped Sofia off at daycare on the way in to work. It was mostly a routine day for me at work. I replaced a couple knees and a couple ankles. Nothing too fancy. Sofia and I had lunch with Mark and after work, we went to dinner and then to the park for about half an hour before I brought her home and got her ready for bed. She was asleep pretty early, so tomorrow will probably be another early day for us."

There was silence on the line for a few minutes. Callie started to panic and said, "Arizona? Are you still there?"

Arizona was broken out of her trance. "Yeah, I'm still here. I just … I missed you guys. All I want to do is hug you and kiss you. You might have to stop me from waking Sofia just so I can say hi."

"You could do that, but then no one will get any sleep tonight. How about instead, you finish driving home, get in bed, sleep for a few hours, and she can wake you up super early tomorrow and you get to spend the whole day with her?"

"As tired as I am, that sounds amazing right now."

"I know. So, tell me about your conference? Did you learn a lot? Did you wow them with your brilliance?"

Arizona told a few specific stories of what had happened during her conference. She finished one just as she pulled onto a very familiar street. "I'm almost home. I can see the building from here. Thanks for keeping me up. You can go back to sleep now. I'll be up in a few minutes," she said as she pulled into the parking lot.

"I'll wait for you. I love you. I'll see you in a few."

"I love you, too."


End file.
